Emmert talks about conference realignment, the NCAA’s future

What’s next for outgoing UW President Mark Emmert? He talked with Fanhouse.com about taking over as head of the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the end of this month, saying he needs to “learn an awful lot.”

Emmert addressed several hot-button issues in the interview, including how conference realignment of Pac 10 and Big 12 schools isn’t inevitable. He said he thinks universities and conferences will “be pretty thoughtful and rational about all this.”

Emmert went on to say:

“There were conversations that were verging on hysteria when all that was going on. Everyone looked at the options, there were good thoughtful conversations. While most people don’t believe it, there were a lot of conversations about academic alignment and fit and culture and how members work together. It was not all about money. I don’t mean to pretend that the money issues were not important, they were very important. But it was much more complex than that. On the whole, they ended up with some adjustments that were a whole lot less dramatic than people anticipated. I think that’s likely to be the case going forward.”